427 replies to this topic

[bpirie1000]

They fairly drink the fuel as well though

[crazirob]

Well after a session on the rollers finished up with 72.5 bhp 66.7 ft ib's which I am fairly happy with, can't wait to get on it for castle coombe track day on Saturday hope to see lots of you all there I will be cleaning and polishing and then playing on track

[SAL 821X]

Is that fly or wheels Rob?

[crazirob]

so the mini world action day !!!

 

 

what a drama that was, for me to get there was quite a story and a lot of effort.

 

firstly 2 weeks ago I  put 2 new tyres on my daily Clio 197, 2 continental sport contact 5's, after a stock take at work at around 11pm, I came out to a flat tyre that couldn't be repaired so had to abandon my Clio at work would you believe it I didn't have a tyre in stock to put on my own car.

 

so I got home and drove the mini to work, went out for my birthday for a really nice meal, and on the way back home, penny decided to spit fuel all over a fed hot manifold !!

 

I got recovered home the night before the show, I eventually arrived home at 11.30 and started to crack on with fixing the fuelling issue, I eventually, got the carbs sorted so they stopped sticking, now when I had my rolling road one of the float jets was replaced by a metal one and the other was the plastic type. but before I went to bed ready for the 6.30 so checked the wheel bearings and 3 had play, and I mean really quite a lot, so I ended up stripping it down until 3.30 am, I eventually got to bed at 4.30 and up for 6.30,

 

I arrived at the esso and met Ben in his 1380 beast ! now we set off HOWEVER penny decided to leak fuel again ! managed to fix it and get moving again within 20 mins, and got about 1.5 miles away from the petrol station, and yet again same problem, by this point I had 2 hours sleep and was getting very annoyed to think about driving the 130 miles to castle combe, let alone driving the 3 miles home I nearly gave up however my wing man kept me going, so we asked a lorry driver for a knife at 7.30, he looked very puzzled and explained what needed to be done, I had to shave down the plastic float jet. as 2 of the runners were not level.

 

now we managed to get to combe, only 3 hours late, and finally arrived at 11am, straight away me and ben got to the Miniworld stand and got straight into the drivers briefing,

 

gave the mini a quick clean, and set about getting into the pits ready to go on track, just as the session is about to go out, guess what mine started leaking fuel AGAIN !!!

 

by this point I saw red mist! I got the car back into the pits, and slammed the door shut got my wallet and went to find a trade stand, after buying a rebuild kit for the carb, I managed to find the problem the float needle had a hairline fracture down the length of it which caused it to stay open hense the reason why it was overflowing, after a 30 min swearing fit at the car and fixing the carbs,

 

once I managed to get this sorted, I went out on the track, firstly on the parade lap, then I went out on a paced session and then out for 3 fast sessions !!! really enjoyed it, however I may have got a bit carried away chasing r53 coopers and bens 1380, however after seeing the water temp getting to 120 degrees I did a cool down lap and went into the pits and hoped I didn't do any damage, whilse I was out panicing about the engine, however this was just the start of the problems, ben came into the pits and looked very worried,  after getting in ben had an oil pressure of 10psi and didn't get higher with revs oil temp was 110, 

 

now bens car has never had a problem with oil getting hot, if anything I would say its the opposite, it struggles to get warm normally and would normally sit around the 50-60 oil temp now we let the car cool down until the temp was nearer 70 degrees and the oil pressure was still really low, so we thought of the oil pressure relief valve, and tried to space it up to increase the pressure, this didn't work, however when we brought the cap off there was a lot of  metal swarf in the cap,

 

so instant thought was main bearings.......

 

gutted this killed both mine and bens mood,  rather than ben just driving it home I went over and seeked the assistance of Bill Richards, and he helped up lots, he recommeneded doing an oil change and seeing what was in the oil filter, so we did this exactly and I would also like to thanks Max at mintro aka busamini

 

 

 

unfortuanly after we had done the oil change, we came to the oil filter and luckly had a funnel with a sieve in it, and there was a brassy, coppery looking metal, so either it could have been main bearings, or thrust washers, as when the clutch is dipped his car normally wants to stall, so little bit confusing, I will be investigating this over the winter, as our show season has come to an end, I will upload a video of the track before the battery died, and if you have any photos of the pickup during the day please post as I would love to see them, because I was so pissed off with the car as didn't really get a chance to take any photos

 

 

 

 

sorry for the long winded update, but **** happens

Robbie

[alex-95]

Good to see it in the flesh, looked great

[crazirob]

Good to see it in the flesh, looked great

 

 

thanks alex great picture !!!!

[crazirob]

here is one of the videos I managed to get before the camera died

 

 

 

 

 

 

I let her have it in the later sessions !!!!

[crazirob]

so after a little break, penny has been dorment in her shed for nearly a month now, and a few things to do over the coming winter months to get her ready for the season next year,

 

 

few bits to be painted and anodized

- ultimate engine steady

- new thermostate housing

- adjustable engine steady,

- master cylinder plate

- re-painting of block and cylinder head.

 

parts to be replaced,

- a new rocker cover to be made up,

- high torque starter motor to be installed

- wheel bearings all round

- new front carpet set

- new radiator, to stop those slightly warm issues

- oil Cooler to be fitted

 

upgrades

 

-slow build of 1293 appendix k engine

more torques bigger ponies

 

merry Christmas to all and to all a good night

[Jared Mk3]

I'm liking the idea of the upgrade!

[crazirob]

Ok so long term plan for the pickup

 

 

1293 appendix k spec

Steel crank

Stock rods as per homologation but lighten balanced crack tested and shot peened =

Current Cylinder head(full race spec Head proven to develop 118bhp on a 1380 previously using a kent 286)

Swiftune Cam either sw23  

Straight cut drop gears

swiftune dogbox with longer Final Drives hardy spicer outputs and cooper shafts

Forged Rockers

H4 carbs on correct cooper inlet

custom maniflow race exhaust system

 

not a lot to do majorly as some components from the 1014 will transfer over however a new build for my married life will keep me mildly entertained for the time being

 

with a compression ratio of 11. -11.5 - 1  i should be able to retain standard octane fuel and reliability and it should produce around the 120 bhp mark which will be a nice number

Edited by crazirob, 10 January 2015 - 10:26 PM.

[Jared Mk3]

That should be entertaining 

[crazirob]

Hello Boys and girls hope you are all well !!!!

 

well it has been a fair few months since I posted anything on this forum about my own car, however I have found a spare 30 mins in my room and able to give you all an update, 

 

to say that the last 6 months has been interesting stressful, exciting and satisfying 

 

firstly I have had to change the started motor which was on my previous jobs list as I was sick of tired of going to start the car and it going tick....... tick..... tick......

 

so a MED lightweight alternator was ordered and fitted, I also had a cooling problem, where when driving the car in normal conditions it would conterminously sit about the 105 degree mark which I needed to rectify with the started, at the time of ordering the starter I also ordered, a performance 2 core rad.

now this did not go with out problems, firstly I ordered and got all excited and spent 2 hours carefully removing all the paint, polishing up the top of the rad so I had a shiny brass finish similar to the previous rad, however upon installation, on of the riv-nuts, that is built into the casing, came free and was just spinning, needless to say I was annoyed, however because I had scrapped off the paint I had invalidated any type of warranty, so I was fuming, however after sourcing a riv-nut kit I fixed it and installed all correct, and now it doesn't really creep above 80 degrees which is pukka ! only when we going to London to Brighton I had to turn it off and we hit allot of traffic for about 20-30 mins on the A22 by Crawley so i purchased a kenlow fan, which will be fitted on my arrival back in the uk

 

scraping off the paint

 

 

brillo wire brush (coarse to get all the stubbon paint off)

 

nearly there

 

 

finished!!!! at last !!

 

over the winter months, we stripped down and rebuilt Bens engine, if you don't follow him on instagram its jordben however some of the regular show goers will agree that it is a stunner ! metro blue with a 1380 and he reall looks after his car,

 

 

here it is at stanford hall last year

 

upon stipping down, we found the cause, it was one of the centre thrust washers, had munched into the crank, removing most of the metal untill the washer as about 1.5 mm thick, obviously this wrote off the crank, the block and pisons were all shagged too so we sourced a new engine, and started the bigger and better rebuild, now previously his engine the pistons sat about 1.5-2mm down the bore, lowering the compression ration to about 8/8.5:1 and it still produced 98bhp and torque firges to match on an ac dodd cam RS+, needless to say we have rebuilt, you would have seen it we now have made it with a compression ration of 10.5:1 and we are hoping to see an increase in power and also in torque, our aim is 110 bhp however it is running in and i wil update you in due course once it is fully rung in and dyno'd, again another exciting situation.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

now some new additions to my car,

 

so like i said i have fitted and installed the starter and the rad, however one of my bug bears with my car was the engine bay, always looking messy and untidy, now one of the first things for me was the rocker cover, starting to look a little old, and was not fully functional it needed to have the outlets changed into new positions, as the old ones looked messy and also i wanted to be able to access the carbs fully without the pie catching on the heat sheild. now you would think when you go to buy BMC green paint that it has a tolerance of tone, now i purchased a tin from SC parts, to say i was disgusted with there customer services was an understatement, you will see why in a second.

 

 so be the build was on. and the mkII rocker cover was born

 

now i brought the paint thinking it would be same, however i got a completely different colour, now i understand shade matching and batch number sthere can be small differences this took the mick !!!

 

after buying an engine enamel i had to thin it down using some poly thinners and paint the rocker however the first one reacted and i only have photos from the second coat and attempt to spray

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cooking in progress

 

 

installed on the engine however missing a plaque

 

 

 

now in a previous post i said i would be making an Appendix K Spec Cooper engine, after much hunting i have started to collect parts ready for the build, now again simialr to the 1014cc engine that currently beats in the little bugger, it will be a little different from Appendix K with regards to using a steel crank on a standard stroke to cope with the rev's but to also give a better harmonic balance throughout the engine, the other difference will be the block and gearbox casing, i want to have the strength of an A+  and also a remote gearbox as i am in the process of purchasing a dog engagement Gear set,

 

but again similar to post above

 

new installed Swiftune cylinder head         --------Got - little more developed than the FIA regs

sw23w camshaft Swiftune followers          --------Got   

 

 

A+1293 bore using Omega pistons

steel crank Swiftune/med

steel rods Swiftune/med/specialist Components

 

 

 

one thing that I would like to point out that this hasn't been a trouble free 6 months unfortunate at London to Brighton, I hit a pothole, where my car is so stiff with the suspension setup, I hit this pothole/ crater in the earth, it has cracked paint and sheered off 2 bolts the ultimate Gearbox steady, and has also damaged a hinge,

 

now with the Hinges, is it common that the old cast ones rust really quickly as mine are starting to bubble is there a better alterative?

 

 

 

SOME PHOTOS FROM L2B 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

now the final part to my update, my car did me very proud last weekend, in the biggest show in my eyes of them all, my little pickup was my wedding car, myself and my new wife had some photos taken with it and lets say the future is bright and we cannot wait to do more shows as she now has a reason to come, I brought her a few wedding presents however I did manage a funny which was a rose petal to match the rest of the car which a tyre, now this is hers to keep and show at the show and shine competitions lol

 

 

 

 

 

who said that Pickups cant be usefull podium for throwing bouquet Check  ! although i did have to put a towel under here so she didnt damage the Load deck lol

 

 

Much love all sorry for waffling on 6 months is a long time

[spike 25]

Great story love the pictures of the wedding ! I also did my nephews wedding a couple of years ago and had a blessing from the vicar. He's my secret weapon ha ha ha





What's your next show are you going to the miniworld live show

[crazirob]

yeh going to be on the miniworld stand and doing some more track time hopefully !!! congrats on the win at L2B, was a little miffed about 2nd place as i was one point away lol  and the guy that beat me didnt even clean his car on the day lol !!! however im still awaiting the scores where i was let down on my car 

[crazirob]

A few updates for the 1293 historic spec engine

The items below I have purchased and are ready to go
Swiftune Sw23 and Swiftune cam followers
Swiftune forged omega 5.8cc Pistons
Swiftune featherweight flywheel
KAD harmonic viscious dampner
Swiftune straight cut deop gears


Starting my little collection of parts! Can't wait to get some more power now , or do I change the cam and flywheel and go turbo ? 😕